[2] He soon became interested in politics, and helped found the Republican Left journal El Luchador (The Wrestler) in Alicante.

[1] In 1929 Esplá and José Sánchez-Guerra y Martínez led the revolutionary movement against Primo de Rivera in Valencia.

[2] In March 1931 Esplá decided to return to Spain to participate in the municipal elections of the newly declared Second Spanish Republic.

Esplá, who admired Manuel Azaña, thought an individual should serve the community according to best of his abilities, which in his case meant journalism.

Before leaving he served for a few weeks as head of the Press Office of the Ministry of State to pass on his knowledge to the new Minister, Alejandro Lerroux.

In this role he worked conscientiously to consolidate the Republican reforms and to control anarcho-syndicalism, which he saw as a serious threat to a civil democracy.

[2] He established good relations with the leading nationalists in Barcelona and helped draft the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 1932 (Estatut de Núria).

In response, Manuel Azaña created the Republican Government Delegate Council of Levante by decree, to take control over these groups.

It was headed by Diego Martínez Barrio, speaker of the Spanish Cortes, and included Mariano Ruiz-Funes and Martinez Echevarría in addition to Esplá.

Eventually on 6 August 1936 the Delegate Council returned to Madrid and left the People's Executive Committee in control.

[6] On 21 August 1936, almost certainly at Esplá's urging, Prime Minister José Giral established a propaganda and information office within the Subsecretaría de Presidencia.

[10] After the defeat of the Republic in April 1939, Esplá was convicted by the Tribunal for the Repression of Freemasonry and Communism and sentenced to thirty years imprisonment.